Linguistic History
While it's impossible to reconstruct even a fraction of the changes both small and large that have occurred over time, or even guess at them, there are a few notable discrepencies here and there that help perhaps give us some clue to an important part of the linguistic history of Eliksnas. Pre-Whirlwind The Eliksni rely on a substance called "ether" to survive. Ether is inhaled and/or absorbed through spiracles, now with the aid of a respiration apparatus of some sort or another. However such a device was not always needed. Prior to the destruction of the Eliksni homeworld in an event they refer to as the Whirlwind, ether was simply part of the environment. We know from conversations with characters like the Spider that Eliksni are just as capable as anyone else of speaking English, albeit a bit harshly or hoarsely if you will. In addition, the alphabet provided by Bungie lists a number of characters that correspond, at least in English, with sounds you do not hear outside of those conversations. Thus we are lead to believe that at one point, likely before a respirator of some sort was required, that the sound at least of Eliksnas was radically different. The alphabet likely dates back to this "Old Eliksnas". So what changed? Post-Whirlwind With the Eliksni homeworld gone, the vast majority of, if not all, Eliksni had to rely on various forms of respirators to sustain their ether needs. Looking at the official alphabet given by Bungie, which is likely more representative of Pre-Whirlwind Eliksnas, and comparing it to how Eliksni speaking Eliksnas through a breathing apparatus sound and how many names are spelled, we can draw an interesting conclusion. For whatever bio-mechanical reason, Eliksni respirators do not allow for many sounds that originally existed in their language to be made, instead giving them that sharp hissing or almost "chittering" sound. While over time all languages undergo numerous what are known as "vowel-shifts" and occassionally a full on "sound-shift", this would be an even rarer "consonant-shift" that came about virtually overnight, with Eliksni try to replicate something at least close to the sounds they were used to, but often coming up with an easier alternative. Consonant-Shift For the highly linguistically minded, this is an attempt to not just map "Contemporary Eliksnas" phonology, but in many cases to show some of its evolution. It's highly recommended you utilize the Wikipedia article on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and IPAChart.com as otherwise this will seem completely meaningless. /a/ > ɑ /b/ > β /c/ > ʧ /d/ > ʤ /e/ > ɛ /f/ > f /g/ > kʰ > k͡x /h/ > χ /i/ > ɪ /j/ > ʎ /l/ > l /m/ > m /n/ > n /o/ > ʊ /p/ > pʰ > p͡f /q/ > q /r/ > ɹʰ > ɹ͡ħ /s/ > s /t/ > tʰ > t͡x /u/ > u /v/ > v͡f /w/ > ʎ /y/ > ʎʰ > ʎ͡h /ee/ > i /ll/ > l͡ɬ /rr/ > ɾ /ra/ > ɾɑ /im/ > umn (exhibits something akin to nunation as the n is silent when at the end of a word) /tt/ > θ /fa/ > fʰɛ Category:History Category:Philology